Enlarging the Sea Rover

by Klaus Dürrbeck
(Isle of Majorca, Spain)

Hi Fellows,
after building successfully a couple of smaller boats (mainly ethnic maori canoes) on Majorca I dare to start building the Sea Rover in the cabin version.

Since the plans relate to a 15 footer I wonder if extending the distance between stations a few centimeters will safely allow a length of 4.99 meters (maximum LOA to avoid high registration fees in Spain).

Does anybody see a major problem? -

Would appreciate friendly comments of people with more building experience than mine.

Klaus

Comments for Enlarging the Sea Rover

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Sep 03, 2021
 Sea Crow - a boat based on Sea Rover hull
by: Seacrow

As far as "...Is a 25 hp outboard engine really capable to make the vessel plane at 15 Kn with 6 passengers as stated in the original plans?.." goes - it might.

With 4 adults on board, fully loaded (24 gallons of gas, 10 gallons of water, three batteries, two anchors) and some other supplies we did 20 knots with a 40 HP Evinrude outboard.

However, our version of the boat is a bit heavier too - it is a cabin cruiser version with a fully blown cabin and a wheel house and a deck in the cockpit. The hull is all built with 3/8" plywood,
the substructure with 1/8" plywood with fiberglass all over.

Hope this helps.
Sep 03, 2021
 Sea Crow - a boat based on Sea Rover hull
by: Seacrow

I have built our own version on this hull. It is
based on 17-ft plans but since we messed up the stem construction it turned out to be about 18 feet long. Also, due to errors in the process, one side is
about half-inch longer than the other...

But guess what - it does not really matter. The final result was great. Great boat, fairly easy to build with even basic carpenter skills.

So, either way - extend the distance between the
stations or add an extra frame at the back - it all
will work.

We used 3/8" plywood all across the hull.
Jul 30, 2018
 Sea Rover (Cabin)
by: Klaus

Thanks Bill & Mike.
In despite of my original enthusiasm and since plenty of conversion to metric is involved I now became reluctant to enlarge the Sea Rover and will stick to the original 15 ft measures.

There is another (important) issue which severely affects my wallet: Is a 25 hp outboard engine really capable to make the vessel plane at 15 Kn with 6 passengers as stated in the original plans?.

Would appreciate any comments of Sea Rover owners who had to deal with this hp-question.
Jul 28, 2018
 Sea Rover
by: Mike

The only 'problem', minor one, I can see is that two standard length plywood panels joined are usually just long enough to clad the side of a 15 footer, for that 16+ footer you will need to join in a bit extra.
Jul 28, 2018
 Sea Rover Extension
by: Bill

Extending an original plan can be problematic.

But the plans do say that she can be extended to 17 ft, so there shouldn’t be a problem going to 4.99 meters (just over 16 ft).

For the 17 ft version they suggest adding an extra frame, taken from the transom framing diagram, which is one way you could go for your 16+ ft version.

However, adding just a couple of inches between frames should be OK too but you might want to consider using the thicker 3/8″ (9.5mm) plywood for the sides.

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